Cohousing-L Mailing List: HafenCity in Hamburg

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

A project people may want to look up and follow. We have a city planner, 
Richard Layman, on our neighborhood list who blogs prolifically on urban 
developments around the world. 

http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com

> He posted this yesterday in response to one of my posts about the difficulty 
> of getting government agencies to support the unique requirements of 
> cohousing when applying for affordable housing subsidies:
> 
> The past year I wrote a bunch of articles about European urban revitalization 
> for an EU culture project in our region, and I learned about Hamburg's 
> HafenCity project, which is the redevelopment of about 2/3 of a square mile 
> of waterfront no longer needed to serve maritime industry.  The agency is a 
> unit of the "local" government (Hamburg is a city-state, not unlike DC in how 
> it has greater than normal access to financing compared to the average city), 
> but the agency's approach varies according to the policy preferences of the 
> parties in power, and their approach to affordable housing has changed in the 
> 10+ years the project has been in existence.
> 
> Originally, the government did not support the provision of "affordable 
> housing" so none was required.  But an update to the plan in 2010, 
> simultaneous with a change in government, put in a requirement of 1/3 
> affordable housing.  And like the "poor door" issue, they are grappling with 
> how to reliably mix classes in ways that support and strengthen community, 
> and what "social infrastructure" to provide to do so and how to fund it.  
> (Because of accelerated price appreciation and greater demand, Hamburg has a 
> policy now that they must build 6,000 new units of housing per year, 
> including affordable, and all relevant city agencies are focused on achieving 
> this goal.)
> 
> An element of the new housing plan is support for citizen-initiated housing 
> projects, where people can self-organize, not unlike a co-housing project, 
> and create a project that can get land and financing from the HafenCity 
> organization.  I believe at least one project is underway (which I need to 
> find out about).
> 
> Richard Layman